The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-11-24
THREE WESTERN MEN.
GOVERNOR oGLESBY, JULIUS S. GRIN
NELL AND NATHANIEL S. JONES.
The First Two Have Lately Been Es.
pecially Prominent Because of the
Anarchist Casc-The Last Named Has
Become q Rich Man.
Special Correspondence.l

Become Rich Man.
Special Correspondence
CHICAGO, Nov. 15.-There are some men in
the west l want to tell you about One Of
them is person very well known in Illinois,
where the familiar patronymic of 'uncle" is
quite universally applied to him, and whose
fame has in a measure spread throughout the
country-GOyernor Oglesby On him as court
of last resort for the anarchists the eyes of
the world We're for some days turned to
see what the sole arbiter of seven lives would
do in one of the most perplexing cases ever
known il this country. Governor Oglesby-
"Uncle Dick" everybody calls him out this
way-has a kindly face an eye which
wrinkles with good humor, tongue which
delights to say pleasant and knows how
to utter fclicitous things Ones first
impression Of the governor is that he could
not say u harsh or cruel thing, even to his
enemy, to save his own neck; yet
those who know him better know that
on occasion he can be us stern and unbending
rs he pleaseS, with all due grace and natural
ness. He likes to tell stories and nothing
pleases him better than to sit up till mid
night in the Office of the Republican head
quarters in ChiCagO-the Grand Pacific hotel
exchanging views and swapping yarns
with u number Of his friends. He can play
the violin, too with good deal of dash and
spirit, and it was in this hotel some years
years ago that saw "Uncle Dick" one even
ing take from the hands Of a colored mu-
stefan black violin and upon it play, to the
livelieSt possible time, an old country "break
down" tune. The politicians and travelling
men who were present formed impromptu
cotillons, and there was plenty of fun.
1t was in Kentucky that Oglesby learned
to play 'the fiddle,n as he has always called
it and as he calls it to this day He there
learned several other things, some of them of
a great deal more Importance. Among
them was to hate slavery He was slave
himself-to poverty and toll. To say that
the parents of great American were poor
and honest is to tell u fact that was easily
guessed but Oglesby's parents were very,
very poor, and moreover when the cholera
swept through the Ohio valley in 1888, pc
culiarly fatal throughout that whole region,
the father and mother died within three
days, leaving half a dozen orphans without
much i'll the way Of property to start them
off in life. Richard was years old then, and
when the executor auctioned off tho estate
Of his father, consisting principally of an
old colored man called 'Uncle Tim,n who
had been kept more Us u member of the
family than as slave, the boy shed
many and hot tears, and in his
brave juvenile way declared that "Uncle
TIM should one day have his freedom. He
kept his promise, too, some dozen years later,
and the old negro died free An uncle took
the boy Richard and did the best he could by
him, but that was not much, and young
Oglesby received but a scant common school
education.
Oglesby springs from that stock which
gave so much good blood to several of the
western states, particularly to southern Hi
nois There were then in Kentucky two
classes-the rich planters and the poor
withstand wide was the gulf between them.
The poor men continued for a while the I'M
equal struggle against wealth backed up
with slavery, and then looked about them for
Il new field Illinois presented many allure
ments, and hither great numbers came.
Thus Kentucky gave to Illinois some of her
best blood and most illustrious names. Thus
came Lincoln, Yates and Oglesby. In 1886
young Richards uncle settled at Decatur,
and the boy was sent to learn the carpenters |
trade. At 20 he began the study of law,
When the Mexican war broke out he went to !
the front i'll the regiment commanded by |
Col. Baker, who was afterward killed at |
Balls Bluff. The gold fever of 40 sent him |
to the valley of the Sacramento, where he |
toiled for two years in search of riches, which |
came not Returning to Illinois he began |
the practice of law and entered politics. The |
very beginning Of the rebellion found him in |
the saddle as colonel, and before receiving
4 grievous wound at Corinth at the time |
thought to be mortal, lie had enjoyed the
pleasure of riding into Fort Donelson at the
lead of the brigade which had borne the
honorable brunt of the battle. Before re-
igning from the army he was made q major
General
Elected governor in 1864, he has since been
United States senator, and has three times
zen reelected to the place he now occupies,
nd upon which the fates this year threw SO
reat and peculiar responsibility Governor
Dglesby is n conscientious man, and vet one
Tho strives to be with the majority. His dis
ostion is a composite of softness and as
Gritty, pliability and stubbornness. lie is a
cen lawyer, wit, an orator in blunt and
Elective fashlrn and as great lover of good
igars as eytC Gen. Grant was.
Another r.an to whom the anarchist case
rought a good deal of reputation is now
bout to ascend the bench in this city. Judge
illus $. Grmnell, as states attorney in Chi
lgo during the last three years, has had tho
ck of unexampled opportunities and the
enius to improve every ono of them Like
lily one-half of the successful men of Chi
lgo, he is from New England stock, tracing
S lineage, however, to French and Welsh
'urces, his remote ancestors living at Grin
lie, village near Paris But III physique,
entail composition, character and traditions
} is typical New Englander-a Vermonter
though himself born in New York
ate. That was forty-fve years ago.
o studied law with Hon. William
Brown, of Ogdensburg, taught school in
gdonsburg academy, camo out to Chicago
Id began the practice of law in 1870, was
ected city attorney as Democrat, twice re-
ected, and in 1854 was elected states attor-
ey to succeed Charley Reed, who defended
uiteau. The last three years have been
nsy ones for him. He sent to the peniten-
airy "Dutchy" O'Keefe, a notorious local
lllot box suffer. Then came the Joe
Iackin case, quickly followed by three
allan murdcrers, whose fate was death.
hese We're no sooner dispatched than the
omb exploded in Haymarket, and Grinnel